-Governance Now An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Ram Sewak Sharma is a 1978 batch Indian administrative service officer belonging to Jharkhand cadre. Sharma is praised for laying down IT infrastructure in Jharkhand. In his role as the director general of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) Sharma is chauffeuring ‘Aadhaar-enabled service delivery’ which would result in saving huge financial resources to the public exchequer. In an interview with Pratap Vikram Singh,...

-The Hindu Patna: “I will die hungry, but won’t do this work anymore,” avowed Lad Kunwar from Madhya Pradesh. When this intrepid Balmiki woman from the Bundelkhand region gave up working as a manual scavenger, she discovered dignity. “The work is horrible. It is so disgusting when it rains and the waste that you are carrying on your head sullies your body. All we got in return was stale roti. When I...

-The Business Standard Are these people expected to return to their villages and hometowns to hang around waiting for the Unique Identification Authority of India to set up shop?  Workers returning to their jobs in metros from remote villages in Bihar and Jharkhand have lately been complaining that they are barred from boarding trains unless they show sufficient identification, including proof of residence in cities. Whether this is a run-up to the...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Seeking and giving information under Right to Information Act has been a cat-and-mouse game for citizens and officials since the legislation came into effect in October, 2005. Now, senior bureaucrats are giving crash courses to public information officers (PIOs) on how to delay or deny information to applicants. At informal sessions, officers coach PIOs - responsible for giving information under the act - how to redirect queries...

-The Financial Express Governments now get into the paid news act. It’s high time for a lesson on ethics for all concerned The spectre of paid news is back, and this time in a murkier form. Where the belief has long been that private companies pay newspapers and TV channels to ‘plant’ stories, it seems that even state governments aren’t above such unethical practices. According to an Indian Express exclusive, the Chhattisgarh...